A funny thing on the way to TOR

Apropos my post that included the lamenting of the xpacks destruction of named items – I decided to try to flag for FoT with my now level 26 bladeforged Arti. And even tho one of the quests screwed up and I have to redo it I ended up doing them all (again, I forgot to pick up the quest that screwed up but for some reason it still allowed me to do it – strange, but I didn’t get a completion and now the chain giver told me to do it). So I’m doing POP – on EN since I want to get it done and over with and as quickly as possible. I pull the Royal Scimitar and once I get on the boat after everything is done, I sold it. Didn’t bother banking it. That’s not really the xpacks fault – it was a meh weapon to begin with and why even bother with something that is the same level as citw stuff? In fact, I think I used it once with my ranger only to figure out that it was still worse against Drow than the other stuff I had.

That’s a sad statement about an item that should be a step above every other item at it’s level. Sure, raid loot is still the best of the best, but even some of the level 20 epic items is better. Like ESOS – it’s the gold standard of 2 handers. Maybe, just maybe the new level 28 stuff like overtake the throne but that’s a pretty powerful statement in regards to ESOS. Only second best – at least for basic epic stuff, is the Antique greataxe. I love that thing.

To be honest it’s not even because of the different version of the Royal Scimitar – all 3 are pretty crappy – and I’m not really a fan of the idea of EN, EH and EE stuff anyways. Think about it – there’s one sting. THE sting. One Excalibur. ONE. One ESOS. But with the Harper chain quests everything got 3 version. Sure – in a sense it was to reward people for doing the toughest difficulty, but the reality is that it’s kinda pointless since you could sell the item anyways. So some schmuck with a boatload of plat or shards could get all the best stuff without really doing anything. At least conceptionally the old shard, seal and scroll system was okay (conceptionally remember?). Roughly meaning that while it was an abysmally irrational and arbitrary system it forced a player to ‘farm’ the different pieces – adding a good time sink to it. Except for a very arbitrary system. Scrolls can be traded but everything else is BTA – the bad part being the low drop chance and the worse part is that in very diluted loot tables it’s almost impossible to get a set. In that regards nothing beats something like greensteel and that’s why the new system is ‘similar’ to greensteel even raid loot. You make a base item; without needing to do the raid. And then collect material. Most of them are unbound so tradable. Then there is the unique thing out of each raid – kinda like power shards from Shroud. Except you need a boatload more of them.

The only difference is that the drop chance increases with each difficulty level, but everyone can upgrade it to the best version. All loot, including raid loot and the new GS 2. I like that. It takes the arbitrary feature out of it (I can’t tell you how many incomplete sets I have gather dust in my bags) and it adds a time sink by requiring mats to unlock them. And that’s good. I know some like the idea of EE, but to me it always seemed like it created tons of stuff people didn’t even care to buy and most of it ended up being sold or banked on a mule. Plus I like to be able to upgrade something without being forced to get a completely new version of the same item but slightly better.

That’s me; I don’t need a ‘reward’ for playing something on Elite. Especially since you can buy them off someone else if you want too. I rather have a goal to look forward too and worry less about stats bling. so bring on the new system for 2014 with an idea of loot founded in the possibility of upgrading stuff. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with 3BC loot and what ML it land at.

My hope however for the rest of the year is that they pair the new armor and weapons with a similar system for items. Adding more reason to set goals and grind out stuff that is more perfectly adapted to your specific needs than anyone elses idea of what’s ‘a good idea’.

I’ve heard that from others as well; but as I wrote – it’s kind of meaningless since you can sell it and anyone can buy it. I’ve done a few things on EE and even pulled a quiver on EE – but most other things are either EH or EE bought.

I didn’t really have any issues with the EN, EH, and EE versions of items, I just wish they had an ability to upgrade the various items (for instance taking a EN item and gathering items to upgrade it to EH, etc.). I also like the ability to take an item and to upgrade it, or add things to it over time to make it more powerful. I’m looking forward to seeing what the new crafting systems will bring later on during the year.